Friday, July 17, 2015

It's time to kick it up a notch, maybe to Eleven? (Ottawa Fury V Indy Eleven 7/19/2015 Preview)

Wojcik looking for three!

Indy Eleven fans should rightly be on a high right now, in the first two games of the fall season we have maintained our record of being unbeatable by the Spring champions the New York Cosmos and we ave managed to overcome the Railhawks and end their unbeaten streak, a team we historically just seem to make look better than they really are!

Don't worry I am not getting carried away, but things are changing, we are overcoming hurdles which just seemed to always trip us up in the past. The match against Carolina in spring was infuriating, but the match against Ottawa was somewhat comparable!

We have a chance to show the rest of the league that this team is on a mission to improve on every result! To assume we are championship contenders at this stage may be a little foolhardy, but for anyone to write us off and take us lightly would be suicidal.

Home wins are not something we are completely used to, going behind at home and coming back to win the game, nerve wracking yes, but it gave me the best fuzzies ever! I would gladly ride that roller coaster every week!

Ottawa Fury V Indy Eleven .......

Indy and Ottawa started their adventure in the NASL together in spring of 2014 and so far in the four games they have played against each other there have been 13 goals and no draws. Ottawa have defeated Indy Eleven on three occasions, two of those at Carroll Stadium and one in TD Place.

Indy Eleven won against Ottawa Fury on the road in late fall last year by 2 to 1, but failed to repeat the result in Spring and lost 1-0 courtesy of an 88th minute Paterson goal. Like last weeks game against Carolina, this is another team we need to show we can overcome!

Indy Eleven are now five games undefeated, two draws, three wins and ELEVEN points from the last five matches (DWWDW). Ottawa saw their shutout streak end last weekend against Minnesota United, 648 minutes without conceding a goal.

You might as well set some record if you are not going to score either. In the six matches prior to the 1-1 draw with Minnesota, the Fury had drawn 0-0 on four occasions and only notched up 3 goals, one of which was against Indy, the other two against Jacksonville.

Ottawa are now on a seven match unbeaten streak. (DWDDDWD), that is eleven points in seven matches compared to Indy's five, so if we are basing our opinion on stats and current form alone, you'd have to say Indy may be slight favorite going into this game, but both teams are proving difficult to beat.

A win is most definitely achievable here and it would be a huge result to take into the game against New York in the following week. It could also take Indy into third place in the combined table depending on the results of other matches.

Players to watch....

For Ottawa, its hard to pick out a scoring threat as they very rarely score goals this year but Tom Heinemann has score a goal in each of their two fall games so far, no doubt he will be looking for another.

Heinemann is a big power forward, standing almost 6ft 5 tall, and will need to be watched at set pieces for sure, I don't think of him as someone who is particularly fast so he will be less of a threat to our in form back line if he tries to run at them.

Indy Eleven's Wojciech Wocjik is going through a pretty nice purple patch right now, one goal in each of his last two games and has been almost flawless in overall performance, last week he showed his skills not only in shooting but also in superb holding, passing and distribution of the ball. Also a strong physical presence, we will see how Ottawa's mean defense can handle him, if we play the right people around him and he gets good service he hopefully will score again.

Dane Richards, let's see if he get's time, I am sure everyone will be watching with curiosity to see what impact he could have in the NASL.Injury updates and availability....

Dane Richards in action for NY Red Bulls

Kleberson and Pena remain long term injuries. Brad Ring who injured his groin in the game against Carolina will likely miss at least one game, which probably will mean more time for Daniel Keller. Dragan Stojkov suffered a concussion last week and somewhere between questionable and probable.

Dane Richards arrived from New York Red Bulls on Monday and is available, other signings are in the offing for Indy but as of writing have not been announced yet.

Julian De Guzman has returned from Gold Cup action and is back in training in Ottawa.